Scale Characteristics of Wild and Hatchery Chinook Salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) in the Rakaia River, New Zealand, and Their Use in Stock Identification
To distinguish between fish with potentially desirable behavioural or genetic traits, we examined scales from wild and hatchery chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) in the Rakaia River, New Zealand, and a tributary, Glenariffe Stream. Scales from wild chinook with a "stream-type" life history corresponded closely to those from 1+ juveniles, but the mean size of the freshwater zone for scales from "ocean-type" adults was significantly larger than for age 0+ juveniles. Scales from fish of hatchery origin lacked a distinct freshwater zone but were distinguishable from scales from wild fish by the location of the first annulus. Linear discriminant function analysis (DFA) based on the location of the first annulus correctly identified 82–90% of the fish in a mixed adult population, increasing to 88–92% when fork length and age were included. Estimates of the number of hatchery fish entering Glenariffe Stream from 1989 to 1992, based on DFA, were consistent with independent estimates derived from coded-wire tag returns.